


Untreatable

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), NCIS
Genre: Plague!Danny, i could not help myself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 09:46:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3805900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"The infection will die after 32 hours. After that, it’s just a matter of how strong your partner is.”</i>
</p><p> </p><p>It has to have been 32 hours by now, Steve thinks. His mind going crazy. It has to have been over 32 hours. They have to have been here more than that, maybe more than 48 hours, he doesn’t know, but he hopes. Because he needs Danny to live. They’ve only been here maybe two days and Steve feels like he has aged years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untreatable

**Author's Note:**

> SWAK is probably my favourite of the NCIS episodes, probably because it was one of the first episodes I saw of NCIS back when I would catch episodes randomly and be generally confused by what was happening most of the time, and SWAK is kind of stand aloneyish. If you get my drift. 
> 
> I can't get over breathless, dying, Danny. So...

Steve knows he’s not meant to be here, but he can’t be anywhere else, and he is thankful that Doctor Pitt and Nurse Emma appear to understand, because they leave him alone.

“Steven?” Danny sounds fine, there is no hint yet of the wheeze Steve knows will come. The wheeze Danny does not yet know to expect. Steve had gotten lucky, had been awake to see the sombre look that had appeared on Doctor Pitt’s face when Nurse Emma had returned to her station. He had gotten lucky, been able to ask what had happened before Danny had to know.

_“The blood work came back, Commander. Detective Williams tested positive for the plague.”_

“Danno?” Steve replies, turning to look at his partner. Danny looks fine, there is no hint yet of the chaos yet to come.

_“You need to leave, Commander. It’s not safe for you to remain.”_

“What happened, babe?” Danny asks, and Steve frowns, confused. “You look like someone stole your car again.” Danny clarifies, and Steve curses inwardly. Of course, Danny’s always been able to read his face.

_“I’m not leaving him. I’ll stay over here and I won’t cause any problems. But I’m not leaving him.”_

“The, uh, the blood work came back, Danny.” Steve says, forcing his voice to work. “We’ve got Pneumonic Plague. It’s, uhm, it’s untreatable.”

_“If you become infected, Commander…”_

“We… oh, okay. Right.” Danny replies, speechless for once in his life. He looks at Steve calculatingly before he looks around their isolation chamber and up at the blue lights. “So this is it, huh?”

_“I know the risks, Nurse Emma, thank you. I’m going to stay.”_

“This is what?” Steve asks, not liking the tone of Danny’s voice.

_“You’re very brave, Commander. One of the previous occupants of that bed made the same choice a decade ago.”_

“This is the last thing we’re going to see before we die.” Steve feels like he’s been punched in the gut, no actually, he doesn’t. A punch in the gut would hurt less than how he feels right now, he is sure of it.

_“What happened to them, Emma? Did they live?_

“We’re not going to die, Danny.” _You are not going to die!_ His mind supplies for him, and he wants to scream it out loud. Breathe it into the air. Give voice to what he desperately wants to be true.

_“She was not infected with the plague, so yes. She did.”_

“Steven, we have an untreatable strain of the plague. I don’t see how we can possibly survive _this_!” Danny exclaims, hands circling around to indicate their glowing blue isolation room, and the two of them.

“ _That made you sad. Did her partner die?”_

“It’s possible to survive, Danny. I asked Nurse Emma. There is a 15% survival rate, and Nurse Emma and Doctor Pitt have both seen someone survive.” Steve shoots back, trying to keep things positive.

_“No. Tony lived, it was a little bit touch and go for him for a while. But he lived. Kate died two weeks after, from a sniper’s bullet.”_

“A 15% survival rate?” Danny asks, his breathing rate increasing, Steve feels his heart speed up. “That’s… just… that’s just so great!”

_“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Uhm, but what about Tony, did he have any… further complications from the plague?”_

“Danny, please calm down.” Steve says, and it sounds like a plea even to his own ears, so he’s not surprised when Danny stops panicking almost instantly.

_“He has permanent scarring on his lungs. It doesn’t cause him too much trouble. He just needs to be careful in winter, not overexert himself, and have any chest wounds examined as soon as possible.”_

“I’m sorry, Steve.” Danny whispers, rolling onto his side to stare at his partner. “You’re right. We’ll survive this. We have to.”

_“What do I have to look out for here, with Danny, symptoms wise? Be honest.”_

“Yeah, Danno, we do. Chin, Kono, and Lou would be lost without us. And I don’t think Gracie would forgive either of us if we up and died on her, huh?” Steve asks, knowing he’s playing a risky game bringing up Grace. Danny smiles softly but doesn’t reply, instead, he simply stares at Steve, eventually falling back asleep. But Steve does not sleep. Instead he watches over his partner, unable to look away.

_“The symptoms that will become apparent first are chest pain, difficulty breathing, and coughing.”_

Danny is pulled violently from his sleep by a sudden, and unexpected bout of coughing. He sits up and his wide eyes seek out Steve, who watches horrified as Danny struggles to draw breath into his lungs between coughs. Nurse Emma masks up and rushes in to assist her patient, hooking him up to oxygen. Eventually Danny’s breathing settles and he falls back against his bed, exhausted. Nurse Emma hovers for a while, raising the head of Danny’s bed so he’s not lying flat, before she returns to her post and converses quietly with Doctor Pitt.

“Danny?” Steve asks, his voice is quiet, scared.

“Steve.” Danny’s voice is soft, tired, Steve knows Danny is losing his fight with consciousness.  

“I’m sorry.” Steve whispers, Danny doesn’t reply. Steve lies awake, listening to the sound of Danny’s laboured breathing.

_“There will be headaches, fever, and overall weakness.”_

“Would it be at all possible for me to procure some Tylenol?” Danny asks for the third time, having awoken a few minutes earlier complaining of a headache from hell. From his bed, Steve can see the sweat dripping off of his friend’s face, and he knows the fever has struck.

“Nurse Emma is fetching some for you now, Danny.” Doctor Pit tells Danny, he must have the patience of a saint, because he doesn’t sound at all annoyed with the repetition.

“Okay.” Danny replies, before coughing weakly and burrowing into his pillow, closing his eyes. By the time Nurse Emma returns with an IV to help with the pain, fever, and dehydration, Danny is fast asleep again.  

_”And eventually he’ll start coughing up blood.”_

Steve thinks they’ve been here for an eternity. Thinks he’s been watching Danny die in slow motion for years, and it isn’t getting any easier. Danny’s fever had receded in the night, it isn’t completely gone, but it isn’t as obvious that it is there either.

“Steve?” Danny’s voice is so weak, so quiet and weak and it breaks Steve’s heart just to hear it.

“Yeah, Danny?” he asks, rolling onto his side to stare at his friend, who lost the energy to move hours ago.

“You’re… not… sick… are… you?” Danny asks, there is no accusation in his voice, just gentle acceptance. Each word is punctuated by loud, painful sounding swallows.

“No, Danno, I’m not sick.” Steve answers with a sigh. _I wish I was, I wish I was sick and you were not._

“You’re… an… idiot… Steven.” Danny whispers, there is no aggression in his words. “Thank… you.”

“You’re welcome, Danno.” Steve’s words are drowned out as another coughing fit takes his friend. Doctor Pitt masks up and enters isolation, he goes to Danny, and sits Danny up. He pats Danny’s back as Danny hacks up a lung, and suddenly Steve is very aware of how accurate that expression is as he catches the good doctor wiping blood away from Danny’s mouth with a tissue. The coughing subsides eventually and Doctor Pitt helps Danny lie back before safely disposing of the bloodied tissue and heading out of isolation to be replaced by Nurse Emma, who hovers around Danny, until Danny falls asleep again.

_“Once cyanosis, the blueing of the skin around his lips, tongue, and core, begins the damage to his lungs will already have been made permanent.”_

“Blue… Hell.” Danny whispers, Steve decides he’s had enough of this, grabs the mask and gloves Emma left for him, and puts them on before approaching Danny’s bed.

“What are you talking about Danno?” he asks, grabbing Danny’s hand and squeezing.

“This… place. Blue… Hell.” And it is, it is because Danny’s lips and finger tips are turning blue and Steve knows it has nothing to do with the blue light shining down upon them. “You… look… like… death… Steve.” Steve laughs, it has a touch of hysteria in it as his eyes burn with tears.

“And I suppose you’re a handsome devil then, ah?” Steve shoots back, forcing the words from his mouth. Danny gives a breathless little laugh and turns his head away from Steve as he coughs. Nurse Emma is there instantly, wiping away the blood.

“That’s… right… this… is… Blue… Hell… and… I… am… its… devil.” Danny replies, Steve shakes his head.

“No. No, because the devil doesn’t leave his Hell, but you will. You’ll walk out of here under your own power, you hear me, Danny? You will live.” Steve insists, will not accept anything else. “You will live.”

“Mm… thanks… babe.” Danny whispers, once more falling into sleep. Steve sits on the edge of Danny’s bed and holds his hand, refusing to let go, even when Pitt brings a team in to help with an X-ray of Danny’s lungs.

_“The infection will die after 32 hours. After that, it’s just a matter of how strong your partner is.”_

It has to have been 32 hours by now, Steve thinks. His mind going crazy. It has to have been over 32 hours. They have to have been here more than that, maybe more than 48 hours, he doesn’t know, but he hopes. Because he needs Danny to live. They’ve only been here maybe two days and Steve feels like he has aged years.

“Commander. The infection is dead. It’s just a waiting game now.” Doctor Pitt says, coming to stand beside them.

“It’s been a waiting game from the start, Doc.” Steve retorts tiredly. Pitt sighs but nods his head in agreement.

“Your partner is strong, Commander, I’m hopeful.” Steve smiles at that and pats Danny’s hand.

“Yeah, so am I.”

_“He’s strong, Emma. The strongest man I know. He’ll survive.”_

The last of Danny’s fever breaks overnight, and Doctor Pitt is pleased to see that the cyanosis is clearing. Steve refuses to let himself believe this means Danny is out of the woods. He knows there is still a long way to go, but this is a start.

Danny starts breathing on his own three days after the infection dies. Doctor Pitt informs them that Danny is officially on the road to recovery. Danny is not the one who starts crying at the news, Steve is.

“Naww. C’mere you big teddy bear.” Danny says, pulling Steve to him for a hug. “You can cry for the both of us, babe, because I don’t think I have the energy for that right now, maybe later.” Danny’s words only make Steve cry harder, cling tighter to Danny, because they have a later now, after so many hours of uncertainty. Danny laughs softly and rubs Steve’s back, shaking his head. “I tell people you’re really a big softy, and they never believe me. Super Seal Steve saves all his tears for me, huh?”

“Of course, Danny.” Steve whispers, resting his ear over Danny’s chest, listening to Danny’s heart beating steadily. “This is the last time, Danny.” He says, adamant.

“The last time for what, babe?” Danny asks, confused.

“This is the last time you’re hospitalized because of biological warfare.” Steve replies, Danny gives a little laugh, Steve feels the vibrations of it and breathes easy.

“Steven, I don’t think that is something you can guarantee me. We were on _holiday,_ well, granted it wasn’t _really_ a holiday for you, since you were collecting a medal. But it was a holiday for me, and I still managed to somehow be exposed to Pneumonic Plague in our hotel room. How does that even happen, anyway?” Danny asks, running his fingers through Steve’s hair. Steve smiles lightly and snuggles against Danny’s chest, earning surprised laughter from the Jersey man.

“It’s the Navy, Danny. Sometimes weird shit just happens.” Danny giggles, but it is the type of giggle one gives when they’re amused but they know flat out laughing will do more harm than good for them.

“Is that the new Navy motto, Steven? ‘Sometimes weird shit just happens.’” He asks, and Steve doesn’t have to be looking to know there is a massive grin on his partner’s face right now.

“I don’t know, Danny. I think it could work. Semper Fi. Semper Paratus. The only easy day was yesterday and sometimes weird shit just happens.” Steve deadpanned.

“You are an idiot.”

“And you love me for it.”

“I so do, babe. I so do.” They fall into a comfortable silence, content to just listen to the other breathe, knowing everything will be alright now.

**Author's Note:**

> Essentially what happened is Danny and Steve went off to DC so Steve could accept a medal (for what IDK) and Danny decided to use the time as a break from work, eat food that wasn't ruined by pineapple, that sort of thing. While at their hotel room, a hotel staff member brought them a SWAK envelope that had been left at the desk downstairs. It was addressed only to 'Five 0' and so Danny cautiously opened it, after sending the hotel staff member away. A fine powder came out of the envelope, Danny accidentally inhaled some of the powder and immediately began decontamination. Throwing the envelope in the bin and pouring water on himself while Steve called in hazmat and had the hotel locked down. They were decontaminated properly, and then sent to Bethesda to be looked after by Nurse Emma and Doctor Pitt. (<3) And while they were being cared for, NCIS was investigating, and the powder was discovered to be the same plague as the one that had been used on Tony. :)


End file.
